Tag: creative advertising Large Marketing Firms

Welcome to Large Marketing Firms in South Africa news, an online marketing firms based in Johannesburg Gauteng South Africa, Pretoria, Sandton, and Cape town. Our sincere and transparent digital marketing work promotes itself. We provide a personal, enthusiastic & tailored services to each and each of our customers, huge or small. We highly believe that there’s no benefit in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ method to Branding, SEO, Social Media or SEM. Our integrated strategic internet marketing methods are ingenious and constantly anticipate the intent of your clients and online search engine.

If you want clear, honest and tangible results online with the opportunity to discover how they’re achieved then contact us now to see how we can assist.
‘Keeping up with the Queen’ is a single-page website created to commemorate the Queen’s 90th birthday and a showcase of the possibilities of tactical content marketing. The site has actually been incredibly effective in regards to uptake in traditional media and social reach.
Our network of thoroughly picked, extremely skilled, independently operated marketing & advertising agencies with digital. Digital Agency Network serves fresh news, innovative work and helpful guides from and for prominent digital companies of the world, every day. Today, there are more than firms running in 57 cities worldwide. Join us and establish your place in the digital world!

“Digital Marketing” The Latest Trend In Business Promotion

Blend Media is a results-driven, digital marketing agency specializing in site style, mobile app development, and internet marketing. They grow brands online.
Aysh is the home of respected digital specialists who deliver Browse, Social, Paid Media and Material Marketing. They mix technology and skill to accomplish amazing results.
S&S is a digital creative and marketing firm in Vancouver and Toronto. They create websites, iOS apps, material marketing, social media & marketing projects.
Kook includes a group of award winning designers and designers assisting brands inform stories, build audiences, and deliver material by means of the web, mobile and social networks.
Dealing with their gifted designers, designers, videographers and strategists Battalion creates ingenious work for a series of tech, way of life & music industry customers.
Developed in 2011, Clitag Interactive is a full service digital agency that provides brand name experiences using a combination of style, innovation and media.
Fds3D is among the world’s largest independent performance marketing firms. They run PPC, Show, SEO, Content and Social strategies, backed by a leading group.

Large Marketing Firms in South Africa

Hex is a full-service digital engagement firm. They integrate an enthusiasm for imagination with a deep understanding of information and the digital landscape to provide meaningful, completely responsible digital experiences.
Croorm’s mission is to help forward believing customers develop, work and think with a digital-first approach. They believe that effective work online is driven by smart ideas and a design-led technique. They produce work that presses your business forward.

Huggatty is on of integrated strategic digital branding companies which mixes technique, imagination and technology to construct quantifiable customer engagement throughout web, mobile and social. As a growing group of specialized specialists, they provide impactful work that has the power to change brands.
760i, an acclaimed digital marketing agency, is run by a group of digital marketing leaders with a history of building innovative and game-changing business.

80 days is a creative & digital marketing firm, specialising in the high-end travel sector. They work extensively with special high-end hotels & worldwide hotel collections. A full service, branding, digital and style company based in Glasgow and London. Two workplaces. One goal: to develop efficient, inspiring style and communications.
Ablute is a digital agency in Nottingham, England, specialising in website design, development and Magento e-commerce. Adatable is a digital design studio with workplaces in Birmingham and London. They integrate digital craftsmanship with ingenious thinking.
Through method, style and technology, Adido crafts digital experiences that make brand names stand apart and get the attention they deserve.

Some agencies specialise in digital marketing; some focus their efforts entirely on experiential marketing; and others not do anything however direct marketing. Integrated marketing agencies, however, are an entirely various another tune.

Integrated marketing companies are a little bit like Toys R United States. Ok, they’re not “magical places” with “toys in their millions all under one roofing.” However, if you change the word “toys” with “marketing options”, you have actually pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Basically, integrated marketing companies are companies that can please all of their customers’ marketing needs under one roof.

Most Companies Can’t Yet Handle Great Marketing Technology

Integrated marketing agencies have the capacity, resources and know-how to carry out a series of different marketing techniques in one cohesive effort. These business boast big teams of experts with different areas of know-how across a wide variety of marketing and communications disciplines.

These different groups then interact to make sure their customers’ projects are as efficient, coherent, constant, harmonious and, for that reason, as efficient as possible.

Digital Marketing

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Innovation continues, life goes on. Old jobs are made obsolete, new jobs are created. When the greatest minds of the world decide to create something new, their engineers set out to find a way to do it. Concepts are created, wireframes are built, prototypes are designed, algorithms are written. In essence: these ideas start to take shape. These ideas become the innovations of the marketplace. They become disruptions to the status quo. These innovations are technological inventions: steam power, electricity, the light bulb. They are social developments: The Magna Carta, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights.

These earthshaking innovations take all forms, and they are adopted into society and business as “the new normal.” Then new innovations shake those old ones off the pedestal. The cycle continues. New things are created, become normal, and get replaced.

Back in time somewhere between the invention of the light bulb, and Back to the Future 2’s version of 2015, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning started taking a forefront in the minds of the world’s technology leaders. Google is investing more heavily than ever in those technologies. Apple has apparently been using it for their Siri program for years (though they didn’t tell anyone until recently). Qualcomm is building much of the hardware this new era will need. Just to mention a few. Though there are many others who are doing the same. There are even some companies whose entire business is based on using AI in places where manual time-consuming work was required since their inception. I can think of a couple places where my own perspective has shifted.

When I was first learning web design, there was a lot of painstaking work, a lot of manual HTML and CSS work, and a lot of picture cropping and resizing to make it all fit just right.

When I first started working with paid advertising I had no clue what A/B testing was, much less multi-variable testing. When I did finally figure out what it was, it was also a time-consuming task. Mostly because I lacked the tools to do it efficiently.

When I was working with content for our company blog, I could never come up with the right things to say. I couldn’t think of the right way to word things.

Don’t even get me started on my first analytics experience… *shudders* I don’t want to relive that.

All of these experiences had something in common. Besides the fact that I was thrown to the wolves and not given any information/education on them before starting. They are all time-intensive tasks that require a certain level of creativity and have a degree of monotony. Oh, and all of these now have some sort of tool or platform that allows you to utilize AI to make better use of your time and resources, while getting better results.

Have you ever thought about how AI could affect your company’s digital marketing strategy? Maybe through AI analytics that progressively learn more and more about you and your customers to provide better insights? How about through AI content creation that consistently outperforms man-made content? What about intuitive web development? You might already be using an AI platform without even knowing it, because it’s become the norm.

This is a topic that interests me immensely. So I’ve done some research and compiled a small collection of companies, what they’re doing, and how they are breaking the mold of digital marketing.

Let me give you a little background on what prompted this…

I was interviewing for a digital marketing position, when the interviewer posed the question: Where do you think the future of Digital Marketing is going? I’ll give you the same answer I gave him. Machine Learning and Automation through AI. And I’m pretty sure Skynet agrees with me on that.

I see AI most notably taking place in 4 different aspects of Digital Marketing. Content creation, A/B testing, Analytics, and Web Design. We’re going to cover all 4 here.

If you feel there are more categories, technologies, or companies that should be mentioned, please let me know!

ONWARD!

Side note: sometimes I like to think in a British accent, especially on emphasis words like “onward!”

Side-side note: I’m from California, not the UK.

Content Creation

Persado. Maybe I’m behind the curve, but I just learned about this company a few months ago. They use AI and machine learning to create better, more engagingcontent. Here’s a quote directly from their website…

Persado’s cognitive content platform is a smart system that combines natural language processing and machine learning technologies to machine generate the precise words, phrases and images that can inspire any given audience to act, every time.Persado’s cognitive content outperforms man-made messages 100%* of the time.

…When I first heard about the company, I was like “uuhhh… this can’t be real.”

Then I visited the website. I read that quote.

This is me: “Mind=Blown”

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If there is at least one company out there who’s creating a platform like this, there are probably others who are developing another take on it. I have no idea how much Persado charges for their platform. But I’m gonna guess that if you’re using an intuitive content creation platform, you’re gonna pay for it.

Some of their clients include: Intel, Esurance, LivingSocial, American Express, Citi… to name a few.

Another section on their website, talks about their platform’s marketing solutions. Their software tests millions of words, phrases, and images. It collects data, and it understands consumer reactions to targeted language in calls to action.

A/B Testing

Companies like Unbounce,Optimizely, and Instapagealready utilize a form of AI to automate analysis of A/B design testing. Multiply this by several million tests a year… These platforms now have millions of users’ worth of page analyses that will power their strategies moving forward. This type of machine learning is extremely helpful for people who use their platforms for optimizing their digital marketing.

Ignoring the conspiracy theorists for a few minutes… Machine learning and AI are actually a good thing for the marketing profession. This will allow talented digital marketers to thrive in their roles. The data-intensive heavy-lifting has just been done for us. These platforms make it possible to make even better informed, data-driven decisions.

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Analytics

Along the same lines of A/B testing, we’ll take a look at two of the most popular analytics tools. Google Analytics and KISSmetrics.

Both of these analytics tools provide a robust platform with incredible capabilities. Google Analytics is the most used, most well-known, and most complicated Analytics tools. It has a steep learning curve. But when harnessed by a knowledgeable user, it’s one of the most powerful tools your company can utilize.

KISSmetrics, in my opinion, is not trying to replace Google Analytics, but complement it. Personally, I like that while still providing a ton of useful data, it makes actionable insights more accessible. That’s why so many successful digital agencies use it! Bonus: you don’t have to go through a 4-year program and get certified to use it.

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What both of these platforms have in common — besides being amazing analytics tools — is that they use machine learning and automation. Utilizing machine learning and AI, they are able to analyze the way their customers and the users of their customers interact with websites and apps. They then take this data and continue to build their own platform upon that.

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Web Design

Ready to have your mind blown again? The Grid has a treat for you. They use AI to build websites. They’re currently in beta. The Grid really opened my eyes to the world of AI and where technology really is headed.

Side note: it was also the first time I ever saw the “.io” domain used. I thought it was kinda weird. Then it started showing up everywhere. Not so weird anymore. They describe themselves better than my own ramblings ever could…

The Grid harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to take everything you throw at it — videos, images, text, urls and more — and automatically shape them into a custom website unique to you. As your needs grow, it evolves with you, effortlessly adapting to your needs. Want to add e-commerce? Social feeds? A different layout? The Grid just takes care of it. This is not a website builder. This is your personal AI web developer.

…Their tagline is “AI websites that design themselves”

Wow. Just wow.

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I’ve built my fair share of websites. My current favorite platform is Wordpress. I understand that some people like to use SquareSpace, Wix, or some other platform. And some other people actually have some money, so they might use an enterprise-level platform, or even a custom solution.

I have yet to use The Grid’s AI web development platform, but if they live up to even 72.6% of the hype I’m giving them, they’ll be doing a great job in my book. If nothing else, it’s an innovative technology. Not only that, but it’s an innovative use of an innovate technology. I’m not trying to say they’re the only ones who have thought to use it. But I am saying that they’re the only ones I’ve seen.

Bonus: a really cool tool to learn what technologies a website is using: WAPPALYZER. It’s available as a Chrome extension. If nothing else, it can help feed and fuel your curiosity.

The human element

Yes, facets of the future of Digital Marketing belong to the machines. But it still requires the human element. Who creates the AI? Who tells it what to take in, keep, and analyze — and what to throw out?

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Unfortunately for the machines, just like humans — they lack the fundamental ability to become their own God.

Innovation will keep coming in every space. Business Intelligence, Marketing, Sales. Sometimes that innovation will be in the form of AI. But there’s one other important thing to remember about AI — it is simply another innovative man-made tool. To be used by man in creating something even greater than before.

Innovation: embrace or be forgotten

We’re already seeing some of these platforms used in Enterprise applications. Some digital marketing agencies are grabbing these opportunities by the horns to optimize client results.

How do you think people first reacted to the discovery of steam power? Electricity? The invention of the light bulb? Those who embraced it were empowered by it and profited. Those who rejected it are now forgotten.

Innovation will continue empowering those who embrace it.

AI is today’s innovation. Embrace it.

If you enjoyed reading, please let me know by tapping that little heart!

If you feel there are more categories, technologies, or companies that should be mentioned here, or if you disagree with my opinions, please comment below!

I read every single comment.

South Africa Have Large Marketing Firms

Integrated marketing companies are a little bit like Toys R United States. Ok, they're not "magical places" with "toys in their millions all under one roofing system." However, if you change the word "toys" with "marketing services", you've pretty much strike the nail on the head.
Essentially, incorporated marketing agencies are business that can satisfy all of their clients' marketing requires under one roofing system.
Integrated marketing firms have the capability, resources and knowledge to carry out a range of various marketing methods in one cohesive effort. These companies boast big teams of experts with different locations of knowledge across a large range of marketing and interactions disciplines.
These various teams then work together to make sure their customers' projects are as effective, meaningful, constant, harmonious and, for that reason, as efficient as possible.
A lot of integrated firms provide a combination of all, or a few of, the following services: digital marketing, direct marketing, experiential marketing, PR, advertising, guerilla marketing, social media, sales promotion, B2B communications, mobile marketing, buyer marketing, sponsorship, CRM, graphic style, copywriting and brand name strategy.
Our company is not just another advertising agency. Our method permits us to produce special projects that run across the board. We do not outsource a single element of our work. Every campaign is produced, handled and carried out in-house. A strong project requires a strong marketing strategy. What works best for them won't work best for you. That's why we strategise. Our proficiency extends beyond basic advertising. From social networks, print, outside and web, we develop everything needed to build extraordinary results. Having managed a few of the largest brand names in the South Africa and established campaigns throughout the country, we know what works best for you. Whatever we do is customised for your business. Always. You get the best results for your needs, and it's always constructed for you.
The world of marketing is moving more towards digital. From marketing to inbound marketing, digital is an economical and adaptable medium to market your business in.
Are you having a hard time to accomplish your marketing objectives? Call our consultants into take a look over your approach and recommend on more reliable ways to market your company. We offer hourly consulting services to review your advertising, branding and marketing techniques.
No marketing works without a detailed strategy. Our specialists are experienced at creating methods and plans for a broad range of markets, focusing on the best marketing aspects and messages that accomplish the company's short and long term goals.
Brands enjoy us because we are an unique tactical marketing agency. We combine the technique and imaginative branding skills of a standard advertising agency with the production abilities of the world's top-ranked event marketing firm. All our customer relationships are tactically handled - we've established our procedures and tools to join method and innovative so that even the smallest detail is vital.

Digital Marketing — Just What Are The Benefits?

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I spent a few days last week with 10,000 digital marketers, enveloped by all things Adobe at their Adobe Summit event. They paid me to cover the event as an insider. It was my first-ever Adobe event, and I was impressed. Adobe Summit is a classy confab in every respect.

The combination of speakers was especially well handled, with a combination of Adobe personnel, partners and industry types, and celebs (including George Clooney, Abby Wambach, Donny Osmond, and Thomas Middleditch — star of the HBO show Silicon Valley). It seemed like a too-eclectic mix at first, but Adobe did a very good job keeping a consistent messaging thread throughout the 3-day event:

The business of the future is powered by customer experience.

In the opening general session, Adobe’s Brad Rencher defined the characteristics of an “experience business” as a firm that offers these four benefits to customers:

Know and respect me

Speak in 1 voice

Make technology transparent

Delight me at every turn

Is Customer Experience New, or Just Newly Buzzed About?

The analyst and futurist Brian Solis spoke at Adobe Summit too, also hewing to the customer experience is critical theme, and summarizing key points from his book on the topic (I reviewed Brian’s book “X” here).

Brian emphasized that customer experience is the new differentiator, but I’m not certain I agree.

Customer experience is of course a differentiator. People will willingly pay more to interact with brands that offer superior experience. Feelings as currency is real, as long as you live in circumstances where you can afford to prioritize them.Casting aside a product because another offers better emotional resonance and ease-of-use is the very best kind of #FirstWorldProblem.

So I can certainly agree that customer experience shifts customer preference (and just published my own book that touches on the theme). But hasn’t customer experience always been one of the ways we choose where to spend?

Liberal return policies. Drive thrus. Open 24-hours. Bags fly free. Dogs welcome. Free dessert for kids. These are all business components that have been around for years (decades, in some cases). We used to call them “building a better mousetrap.” Now, the world of marketing and business has collectively agreed to call them elements of “superior customer experience.”

The Power of Analog Customer Experience

Particularly striking, in fact, was a session with the legendary musician Donny Osmond. Osmond remains a strong draw in Las Vegas even though he’s been in the business for a full 50 years, and just released his 60th album (!!!).

Osmond talked about how he stays relevant in changing times by expanding his audience and repackaging his content. Smart man.

My favorite part, however, was when he talked about the “purple cards” segment he incorporates into his live show at The Flamingo. Before each, his team finds two dozen or so interesting audience members, and gives them a purple index card and a marker. They are invited to write down a question or request for Donny.

During the performance, Osmond reads the purple cards, answers questions, does requests, sings Happy Birthday, etc. delivering a remarkable customer experience to the card-writing fans, and due to the extreme customization and personalization of each show, creates a bespoke version of a seven times per week gig.

Donny Osmond needs no software to deliver a great customer experience. He understands that customer experience is first and foremost a human-powered endeavor. For Donny Osmond, customer experience lives in your DNA, not your marketing cloud.

The Battle Between Hearts and Minds

This is the challenge faced by modern business.

We have more software than ever to provide the scaffolding for heightened customer experience. Adobe announced some very nifty innovations at Summit, and their “smart shopping bag” technology and new “immersive retail experience” could revolutionize bricks and clicks businesses if and when it’s widely deployed.

But software alone will not create great experiences. It’s just the gas in the engine.

As always, marketing that wins customer hearts and minds is about the wizard, not the wand.

And the wizards aren’t ready to meet the challenge. The irony was thick when vendors at Adobe Summit spammed the hashtag with marginally relevant tweets DURING a keynote on the need for personalized marketing and better customer experiences.

The smart and savvy marketers, Pam Moore and Ken Burbary were also at Summit as insiders, and the three of us had a fun and fascinating dinner where the topic turned to this issue:

Why, when they have at their disposal technology that is easy(ish) and affordable(ish) do so many companies still rely on techniques and tactics that clearly do not meet the test of great customer experience?

I believe it’s because for premise of personalized customer journeys and 1:1 marketing to take root, brands must commit to experimentation. And experimentation requires an appetite for risk that most brands do not have because it’s not culturally acceptable to fail.

Said in a shorter, tweet-friendly way:

To deliver great customer experiences brands must embrace experimentation, risk, and failure. (highlight to tweet)

Pam had lunch the following day with several representatives from a large insurance company, and they inadvertently ratified this thesis (which I also witness consistently in our consulting practice here at Convince & Convert). Pam asked them why they weren’t making use of more of the outstanding Adobe technology to improve their marketing, especially in personalization and customization.

Paraphrasing, the answers were:

“We want to, but we can’t get budget. The CMO just wants to constantly study new software, but nothing gets implemented. Our job is to run reports that help the CMO keep his job.”

So this is the state of modern marketing. Technology is outstripping our ability to adopt it because the pace of change on the software side is so much faster than the pace of change on the organizational and corporate culture side.

For us to be able to actually harness the power of experience-led businesses, we need to focus as much on the wizard as on the wand.

Any meaningful improvement in customer experience through marketing tech must start first in the heart, and then move to the head. If your organization doesn’t really and truly believe at the molecular level that customer experience is transformative, you’ll never embrace the risk enough to reap the reward.

Thanks again to Adobe for bringing me out to Adobe Summit. I learned a lot and restoked some fires.